5/22/2008 @ 4:20PM

Google's Mobile Ambitions

Google
never intended to become a wireless carrier, even though it had heavy involvement in the Federal Communications Commission’s recent wireless spectrum auction, said Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, in a talk he gave on Thursday morning.

“It’s not our core business,” Page said during a wide-ranging discussion about expanding Internet access and innovation hosted on Thursday by the New America Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based public policy nonprofit.

Page acknowledged that his company has a growing interest in expanding its mobile services business. But compete with existing telecommunications carriers? Nope, not Google
.

“We have other things to do,” Page said. “Organizing the world’s information is a big task.”

Instead, Google would like to see an independent “band manager” organize spectrum use in the U.S. The entity, which could be run by a governmental body, such as the FCC, could oversee continuous, dynamic purchases of spectrum, suggests Page. That would be a major break with the current method of allocating spectrum in which licenses for airwaves are auctioned for millions of dollars and awarded to the highest bidder basically in perpetuity.

The new system, argues Page, would be more efficient and profitable and allow users to hop online using whatever frequency promised the fastest connection at that particular minute. “The government could make a lot of money auctioning spectrum off every second,” he noted, comparing it to the way Google auctions individual keywords for advertising.

Google’s interest in promoting the use of wireless spectrum runs deep. To boost mobile use of its applications, the company has spent the past year angling for greater access to cellular networks and vacant TV channels known as “white spaces”–with mixed results. In March, it left the FCC auction a “happy loser” and increased its efforts in opening up the unlicensed “white spaces” spectrum for wireless Internet use. Page described the TV airwaves, which can travel far distances without much infrastructure, as “wi-fi on steroids.”

But a powerful lobby, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has been steadfastly blocking its access to those airwaves by arguing that using the channels will interfere with TV broadcasts.

Page joked about the rivalry during the talk, admonishing the audience, “If you’re affiliated with the NAB, please identify yourself.” Sensors built into specially designed white spaces devices would eliminate interference, and as more technology companies and users sign on, the technology would improve, he added. In other words, it’s politics, not engineering, that’s the bottleneck.

Page took a similar stance on the topic of city-wide deployments of wi-fi, which have been struggling in recent months. Google’s municipal wi-fi network in its Mountain View, Calif., hometown is successful, Page said. “The issues are more regulatory … technically, these things work very well,” he said.

Securing access to mobile devices also prompted Google to invest $500 million in a new, national wireless network using a super-fast wireless technology called WiMax earlier this month. Executives from
Sprint Nextel
and
Clearwire
will run the new company. Page praised the spirit behind the venture: “They talked about making it open … we were excited about that and wanted to support it.”

He ended the discussion by acknowledging the elephant in the room: a possible merger between
Microsoft
and
Yahoo!
. A match-up would stifle competition, particularly in areas like e-mail and instant messaging. “Yahoo! has basically said it wants to remain independent,” said Page. “We would support that.”

“On the other hand, they’re in a difficult position, so …” Page didn’t finish the sentence.